The Four Trigs Race was held by Sidmouth Running Club on the second Sunday of February, writes Dave Mutter.

The 17-mile self-navigation fell race requires entrants to bag the four main trig points around Sidmouth.

Additional checkpoints streamline the route whilst still leaving the opportunity for variations.

This year the clockwise route saw the runners set off across Sidmouth seafront towards Peak Hill.

The tarmac start gave little away about the course conditions. Once the runners had made the first climb, they were greeted by saturated slippery ground, which made for muddy tough going.

The first half of the race was quite pleasant overhead, but this turned to persistent hail showers and a ferocious cutting breeze by about 11am.

Harpford Woods provided the usual talking points with numerous runners taking different routes and some getting lost too!

James Green, Matt Clist and Tim Lenton started strongly to break from the field early on.

James Green eventually pulled away from Matt Clist to win in just under 2:14. Matt finished second in 2:22 Tim Lenton came in fifth.

Karen Eyre and Eleanor Wood enjoyed a measured start. As the race progressed, Karen felt the urge to chase down the lady in first position. The strong finish wasn’t quite enough, but a cracking time of 3:09:20 and second lady were just reward for the effort. So close to catching the first female!

Eleanor Wood was not far behind in 3:23 despite some unhelpful exploration of Harpford Woods!

Andrew Hartnell ran with Richard Jackson, they stayed together until the last climb from Weston where Andrew forged ahead to finish in 3:52:31.

Richard’s finishing time was 3:53:49 while Amie and Tim Sibley completed the Four Trigs meeting together in a time of five hours and three minutes.

Other Sport Stories

On a wet dismal Saturday, Sidmouth Golf Club president Roger Bawden was delighted that all 100-plus competitors for the President’s Prize turned up and played through the constant drizzle that hung around all day, writes Hugh Dorliac.

Kiteboarding, now an Olympic sport, was included in the World Sailing Championships for the first time and the Exmouth-based Bridge family were out in force for the championships which took place in Aarhus Denmark.